New Delhi: The A B Vajpayee government defeated the Opposition's motion of no-confidence by an margin of 312 to 186 votes. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the National Conference abstained, while the Bahujan Samaj Party voted with the government.

The vote came at the end of a two-day marathon debate when the Opposition insisted on a formal division. In fact, by the time Vajpayee got up to speak at 11 pm, the Lok Sabha members had visibly lost the appetite for lengthy speeches.

Instead of replying to specific charges of indictment made by the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, while introducing the motion, Vajpayee chose to express himself to be pained at the very idea of the Opposition "charging" his government when "so much had been accomplished" in the last five years.

Vajpayee disputed the Opposition's contention that his government has lost the mandate of the people, and challenged the Congress for an electoral bout in the assembly elections later this year.

But the prime minister was at his animated best in defence of his defence minister. He complimented George Fernandes for stoically facing the Opposition's boycott, declared him to have been the best defence minister, and argued that it was he, as the prime minister, who inducted Fernandes back in the Cabinet.